Morning Skin Care

I wanted to share the products I've been using in my simple morning skincare routine. I've been using most of them since about October (I've been using a few of them longer) and my skin has been pretty happy.

• The Body Shop camomile cleansing butter: This balm is sold as a makeup remover, but I prefer to use it in the morning as a gentle cleanser and to aid in my daily facial massage. It smells lovely and feels very refreshing.

• Andalou 1000 Roses Floral Toner: I give my face a good spritz with this after massaging and cleansing. Rosewater is supposed to be great at balancing skins PH, and this also claims to "renew skin at the cellular level" with rose stem cells. It does feel great, and smells like roses, so I love it.

• Nourish Organics Argan Face Serum: I've been using this serum for almost a year now and I love it. My skin feels so healthy and hydrated after applying. Both argan and rosehip oils are full of essential fatty acids, vitamins, & antioxidants and are supposed to be good at reducing fine lines and improving elasticity and tone, so the fact that they're both in this one serum makes my life way easier! Also, this is one of those face oils that immediately sinks in, so skin feels hydrated and not greasy at all.
I've been hearing about the benefits of using Frankincense Essential Oil for it's anti-aging benefits so I'm thinking about getting some and starting to add a few drops to my serum for a really powerful trifecta!

• REN Firm and Lift Eye Cream: Eye creams: do they do anything? I guess you don't know until you've been using them for years. I'm kind of ambivalent about them because they are always so expensive and I never notice any difference after using them. However, I err on the safe side and usually incorporate them. This one is fine and I like REN as a company because their products are without synthetic fragrance, sulfates and parabens etc. When this is used up I have my eye on the avocado and argan one from Nourish.

Since I work from home I don't feel the need to put an SPF on unless I'm leaving the house, but I do always wear SPF when I go outside.

Branding for Alicia Gbur

Another recent logo with image and lettering for Alicia Gbur Photography.

Around Here Lately

Even though it's been an unusually nice February weather wise (it's gotten into the 60's several times!) my mood has taken some dips. I just feel like I can't get enough done, there aren't enough hours in the day for everything I want to do and have to do. Anyway, February is when things like this hit me hardest, lovely weather or not. To perk myself up I bought this lovely yellow primrose plant. Every year I tell myself it's a waste of money to buy plans that are only going to die a few weeks later, but every spring I buy a few because they do make things more cheerful!


I also treated myself to a new candle. I've been thinking that I'd rather buy somewhat expensive candles from small makers rather than the outrageously expensive ones from huge companies. I found this candle maker on Etsy & loved the scent choices. I ordered bergamot of course, that is my thing. I'm really happy with it, it smells wonderful and fills my whole apartment.


I got a little sample sachet of the Smith Tea herbal infusion "Meadow" and was charmed and surprised at how lovely it looks when I opened it.


It really does look like a little meadow filled with flowers in your cup. I've been trying to use up teas I have so I can buy more and I'm sure I will have to buy more of this as well as Lord Bergamot, an old favorite.


Flowers from my love on Valentine's Day.

Yellow

A few little warm up drawings from the last few weeks.

Natural Brushes

I tend to like things that are both beautiful and functional, especially when it comes to home goods, especially ones I have to use every day. This has led to the purchase of a lot of natural bristle brushes. I'll admit to buying more than I need at one time, just because I love them. But I do use all the brushed pictures here, almost every day.

The one on the left is the general dish scrubber. Then the small one that I use to clean glasses & mugs only, so grease or whatever from doesn't get in them. Next the first pass or heavy duty brush. And lastly bottle brushes which are one of the best $2.99 investments I ever made. They just solve a problem (aka dirty water bottle) forever and I love that.

In my experience the best place to buy brushes like these is at Asian supermarkets, they usually have a ton of different ones to choose from, and they are amazingly inexpensive. Still, you can often find them at regular supermarkets and they shouldn't be too much.

Two other things I love about these types of brushes: they tend to last a long time, and when they do wear out, since they're all natural materials I pop them into my city composting bin!

These Paper Hearts

I recently designed this blog header for the YA Book Blog These Paper Hearts. The proprietor of the blog re-designed her site around it and I think it looks lovely!

ETA In Frames

I framed my pieces for ETA this time in some lovely hand made frames I found on Etsy, from this seller.

ETA 17

Here are all my pieces for the upcoming Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta Gallery. You can buy them online here, or visit the gallery for the opening Friday February 6th in Portsmouth, NH!
The image area of each is about 3 inches and each has touches of gold leaf. I gave them all the most ridiculous names, but never mind!

January Book List

In January I read:

•A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (re-read)
•Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
•Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg
•In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré
•The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
•Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
•Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

January was a very good reading month for me. I kept with my goal of not mindlessly watching a show or movie in the evening while sitting on my computer "working" & zoning out. Instead after dinner I spent almost every week-night of Jan reading a hundred pages or so.
I found that even though my reading goal for this year is to read better not necessarily more I was making my way though books quite quickly (even Shirley which was a dense 800 pages. It also found I was much more excited about reading in general, I felt like I had a lot more time in the evening, and ended up going to bed at a much more decent time. All good.

I want to track my film watching as well in these posts, but because I spent so much time reading I didn't watch many new (to me) movies this month. As apposed to in December where I was making a point of going though my Netflix queue & watching things that had been sitting there forever. We also went out the movies only once. The movies I watched in January were:
•The Leggo Movie
•The One I love
•Escape From New York
•Inherent Vice